Facebook Sued, Delays Smart Speaker Reveal

Even after Mark Zuckerberg broke his silence and apologized for mishandling the Cambridge Analytica incident with “ads” in major newspapers, Facebook is still under fire. Three Facebook Messenger users sued the company on Tuesday, filling a class-action suit for storing call and text message content without users’ consent. The lawsuit against Facebook was filed in the federal court in the Northern District of California and seeks unspecified damages.

This lawsuit comes at a harrowing time for the social media giant as it is faced with another lawsuit in New York where it is accused of allowing housing advertisers to discriminate based on age, sex or race. However, these cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Facebook’s stock plummeted 14% after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, removing $75 billion from the company’s market cap. By Tuesday night, it fell again by 5%.

Because of all these security fears now associated with the company, Facebook is not likely to announce their long-awaited, long-rumored smart speaker anytime soon. According to business news media company Bloomberg, the company will not unveil any home products at its May 1st developer conference.

The Facebook smart speaker with an Alexa-like digital assistant will not be revealed until the company decides it strikes a good balance on how it collects user data. According to the same report, even in focus-group testing, users were not too keen on having a Facebook device in their home.

While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has tried to assuage privacy concerns by rolling out new privacy features, concerns still linger. Perhaps when the public will be more persuaded when he testifies in front of Congress in the coming weeks.